Suspect arrested in South Richmond father’s hit-and-run death

Suspect arrested in South Richmond father’s hit-and-run death

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) – A suspect has been arrested in connection to a hit-and-run that killed a South Richmond father earlier this week.

Richmond police said late Friday that 34-year-old Taj Idrissa Conway, of the 3100 block of Vale Street, has been charged with felony hit-and-run.

Authorities said Conway, who turned himself in to Richmond police around 2:30 p.m., is being held without bond at the Richmond City Jail.

Additionally, police thanked the public for the many calls the department received about this incident.

Richmond police received a call around 8:40 p.m. Tuesday about a person down in the roadway in the 4500 block of Walmsley Boulevard. That’s where officers found 33-year-old Jeffrey Shawn Smith lying in road. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jessica Smith talked to CBS 6 News’ Shelby Brown earlier this week about the ordeal. She can’t believe when she waited on her uncle at a Southside convenience store late that night that it would be the last time she would see him alive.

Surveillance video showed Smith in the store minutes before he walked outside on Walmsley Boulevard. He was headed to his sister’s home, but just after he stepped out of camera range, he was struck and killed.

When Smith called her aunt to see if her uncle had made it home, she said she knew something was wrong when she was told he hadn’t come home. That’s when she ran outside and spotted her uncle’s body. Smith said she recognized Smith’s clothes and shoes.

“We called his phone and we saw the it light up on the body of the guy that was lying on the ground and we saw the light light up in his pocket,” said Smith. “I don’t even know how to get the image out of my head.”